"When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over. He does not need punishment; he needs help. That's the message he is sending."

Thich Nhat Hanh


Peasce to You and Yours with Love
Jerry

2nd Annual Vegetarian Potluck Tuesday, August 10th!!

Join us for our Second Annual Vegetarian Potluck on Tuesday, August 10th at 6:30 pm.
There will be lots of healthy, delicious vegetarian food to enjoy as we think about the impact of the consumption of meat in the US. Bring a dish to share or make a donation.
We will view the talk Ocean Robbins gave at last year's Peace Alliance Conference in DC. Ocean founded YES (Youth for Environmental Sanity) when he was only 16!
See you Tuesday!

Stopping Nukes, Stopping Wars

Phyllis Bennis will be the keynote speaker at the annual Hiroshima/Nagasaki event on Thursday, August 5th at 7:30 pm at the Zion Lutheran Church, 143 Albany, Ferndale
(3 blocks south of W. Nine Mile, west side of Woodward). We are cosponsoring this event. The indoor program will be followed by a Peace Walk in downtown Ferndale.

The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers.

Thich Nhat Hanh


Peace to You and Yours with Love
Jerry

Compassion is like a sense of caring, of concern for others’ difficulties and pain. Not only family and friends, but all other people, even enemies. If we think only of ourselves and forget about other people, our minds occupy a very small area and even tiny problems appear very big. When you develop concern for others, your mind automatically widens; your own problems, even big ones, will not be so significant.

Dalai Lama

Peace to You and Yours with Love
Jerry

FILM: COUNTDOWN TO ZERO

It is predicted that this must see movie will have a similar impact on the nuclear threat as The Inconvenient Truth did for the environment. The film features an array of international experts and statesmen and ends with a powerful message: no country should have nuclear weapons! Showing at the Royal Oak Main Art theater with discussion following the 4:30 p.m. shows on Friday & Saturday July 30 & 31.
To register for the event and get FREE tickets, go to the
website of the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice: www.icpj.net/countdown

Acceptance of suffering does not mean we should not do everything in our power to solve a problem whenever it can be solved. However, acceptance of the suffering that we are already undergoing helps us not to make it worse with the additional burden of mental and emotional suffering. For example, there is not much we can do about old age. Far better to accept our condition than to fret about it.

The Dalai Lama


Peace to You and Yours with Love
Jerry

Peace does not mean no more conflict among humanity. Conflict is bound to happen, so in order to keep peace in spite of conflict, the only realistic method is the spirit of dialogue, respecting the other side and understanding their viewpoint. We need to try and solve problems in a spirit of brotherhood and sisterhood, in a spirit of reconciliation and compromise.

Dalai Lama

Peace to You and Yours with Love
Jerry

First Step’s Domestic Violence Work Topic of Citizens for Peace July Meeting

Learn about the work First Step is doing in our community to help end domestic violence on Tuesday, July 13th at the Citizens for Peace meeting. Carmen Dominguz, a social worker at the Redford and Plymouth offices of First Step, will discuss the prevention domestic violence.

First Step believes that prevention is a key component to ending violence in our communities and manages innovative violence prevention and intervention programs. Since 1978 First Step has been working in 35 communities of Wayne County to assist families dealing with domestic violence. In 2007 – 2008, First Step staff and volunteers touched the lives of over 15,493 people. Prevention of domestic violence through education, advocacy and appropriate intervention is their ultimate goal.

Support the efforts of First Step by coming to the meeting and finding out how to help reduce domestic violence in our community. The meeting begins at 7 pm at Unity of Livonia, located at 28660 5 Mile Rd.

Within you there is a stillness
and a sanctuary
to which you can retreat at anytime
and beyourself.
~Herman Hesse~

Teachers who inspire
realize there will always be rocks in the road ahead of us.
They will be stumbling blocks
or stepping stones'
it all depends on how we use them.

~Unknown~

Peace to You an Yours with Love
Jerry

The secret of attraction is to love yourself. Attractive people judge neither themselves nor others. They are open to gestures of love. They think about love, and express their love in every action. They know that love is not just a mere sentiment, but the ultimate truth of the heart of the universe.

Deepak Chopra


Peace to You and Yours with Love
Jerry

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.
~Mother Teresa~

Peace to You and Yours with Love
Jerry

The U.S. Department of Peace: A Brief History and Bright Future
by Antony Adolf



George washingtonJohn F. Kennedy, that great orator if not practitioner of peace, once said: "Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures."

But what most Americans don't realize is that this gradualness as manifested in the initiative to create such "new structures," a federal U.S. Department of Peace to coordinate and fund peace work nationally, has been part of the American Dream since the country was founded.

I was recently invited to speak on peace activism, peace professionalism and peace journalism (no, the three aren't mutually exclusive) at the Midwest U.S. Department of Peace Conference in Detroit. The experienced vitality of the attendees who came in from six states and dozens of cities re-energized me, and I returned home reminded that there are a lot of people who work proudly and effectively for peace despite still being in the shadows of most media. To be among them, sharing stories and ideas, was a privilege I am unlikely to forget, and with a bright future ahead, neither will the history of which we are a part.

Not only are there a lot of Americans working for peace right now, there has been ever since there has been Americans. Peace isn't just a fad that came and went with hippies in the 60s; it is part of the very fabric of this country, if also one we often forget or are made to. In a powerful presentation by the charismatic President of Citizens for Peace, Colleen Mills, our host along with sponsor The Peace Alliance, a perhaps surprising brief history of the U.S. Department of Peace initiative was given.

1783: George Washington called for a proper “Peace Establishment”.
1792: Benjamin Banneker and Dr. Benjamin Rush call for an “Office of Peace” with peace education in all schools.
1936: Dr. Frederick Kettner publishes essay “The Need for a Secretary of Peace”.
1943 -1968: Eighty-eight Congressional bills are introduced calling for a Department of Peace in the House or Senate.
1961: President John F. Kennedy launches the Peace Corps.
1969: Senator Vance Hartke (IL), and Rep. Seymour Halpern (NY), introduce a Bill for a Department of Peace with a Peace Academy.
1984: The U.S. Institute of Peace created (its beautiful new building is currently under construction).
1993: President Bill Clinton launches Americorps.
2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009: Rep. Dennis Kucinich (OH), and Sen. Mark Dayton (MN) introduce Bills calling for a Department of Peace.
2010: The U.S. Department of Peace is named in Change.org's "Ideas for Change in America."

Of particular note is that peace has always been a bipartisan issue insofar as both Republicans and Democrats have been involved in the U.S. Department of Peace initiative throughout its long and distinguished history. The initiative is also global, and with successes in a few countries already. Will Americans lead or follow when it comes to peace in the 21st century?

As campaigning for the November elections picks up steam, we can each do our part to make some of it push the gears of the U.S. Department of Peace forward. We're in good company, there's lots of us if you look, and it's part of our and peace history, too.


Antony Adolf is the author of Peace: A World History

Photo of Mares and Chuck's grandchildren after putting together the Peace Puzzle we received at the Midwest Conference.

Date of doing the puzzle-May 18th, 2010

Brennan, Colin, Audrey with Grandpa

Peace
Do you think peace requires an end to war
Or tigers eating only vegetables?
Does peace require an absence from your boss, your
spouse, yourself?
Do you think peace will come some other place than
here?
Some other time than now?
In some other heart than yours?
Peace is this moment without judgement.
That is all.
This moment in the heart-space where everything
that is, is welcome.
Peace is this moment without thinking that it should
be some other way
That you should feel some other thing
That your life should unfold according to your plans.
Peace is this moment without judgement.
This moment in the heart-space where everything
that is, is welcome.
- Dorothy Hunt

Peace to You and Yours
Jerry

If we can change ourselves, we can change the world.
We are not the victims of the world we see.
We are the victims of the way we see the world.

Dennis Kucinich

Peace to You and Yours with Love
Jerry

Citizens for Peace Meeting June 8th

Join us for our monthly meeting as we write postcards to our Congressman requesting support of the Youth Promise Act. If you have not signed the petition yet, please do at http://www.youthpromiseaction.org/. We will also hear a report from the National Student Peace Alliance Conference from Meredith, an officer of the Student Peace Alliance at Schoolcraft. This important bill is ready to pass in the House. We need more Senators to support it. It could pass this year! We need your help to make it happen!
See you at Unity of Livonia (Five Mile between Middlebelt & Inkster) at 7 pm!

“Practice watering seeds of joy and peace and not just seeds of anger and violence, and the elements of war in all of us will be transformed,” says Thich Nhat Hanh. You water seeds of anger and violence by deciding to stay angry and act violently. You water seeds of joy and peace by deciding to be peaceful, no matter what is happening to you. Peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart, and then respond in a nonviolent way

Thich Nhat Hanh.

Peace to You and Yours withLove
Jerry

Hometownlife Newspapers Reports the 2010 Midwest Peace Conference

Thank you Hometownlife Newspapers for the very informative feature article in today's (May23, 2010) newspapers on the 2010 Midwest Peace Conference. The supporting photos depict the dedicated supporters of a Department of Peace and Nonviolence.

“Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heal that has crushed it."

Mark Twain


Peace to You and Yours with Love
Jerry